Letter 3: My school

 

General In the first two letters, you have written a lot about yourself. In this letter, you are going to write about your school. It should contain general information, but also what you think about subjects and teachers. Try to give a good picture of your school. Use the answers to the questions below, but also include extra information. Content Don't forget to answer the questions your partner may have asked you, and to give your personal news. Start and finish your letter in the usual way. Use the answers as the bricks to build your letter.     Hint 3  When you write about teachers, do not be too personal. It is good to have an opinion but it is not nice to "hurt" them. Remember they are only human too!!!

Build your letter
You could start with:
   
    Thank you for your letter. I enjoyed reading it a lot. In these last weeks ……. And what did you do? What happened? In this letter I'll tell you everything about my school.

Now use the answers to these questions write your letter:

• How many pupils are there in your school?

• How many subjects do you have?

• How long do you have to go to school each day? (On Monday, I'm at  school from .... until..... On Tuesday...)

• What are your 3 favourite subjects? Explain why you like them.

• Mention 3 subjects you don’t find interesting, easy. Explain why.

• What do you like best about your school?

• What do you not like about your school?

• Tell something about your 3 favourite teachers.

• Tell something about your class. (number of pupils, their  behaviour...)

• Tell something about your 3 best friends at school.

• Tell something about the other pupils at your school.

• Are there any special events at school? If so tell something about them. (special projects, theme weeks, camps, excursions, school  outings, parties.....)

• Mention 1 event that has happened at school you'll always remember.

• What do you want to do after you have finished this school? What do you want to become in the future?

• Now you can add some personal information. Don't ask the same things as in the previous questions because your partner works on the same materials!

You could finish with:
    I hope you have enjoyed reading this letter.
    I am looking forward to receiving your next letter.

WORDS and SENTENCES

Sentences

On Monday we have .........../ we start with ....., then ...
I like ......, because .........
The teachers are nice / strict / boring / interesting.
The children in my form are nice / quiet / talkative / awful / great.
I like  ..... the parties at my school.
 ............... the holidays
 ............... the breaks
I do not like ..... the school lunch at my school.
 ......................... the teachers

Words: School subjects
 

Agriculture and natural environment Drawing History and civics Religious Education Art and Crafts Dutch Italian Retailing Beauty care and hairdressing Economics Latin Science Biology Electrical engineering Mathematics Secretarial training Building techniques English Mechanics Slovenian Care work Fashion and clothing Motor mechanics Social Science Catering Fitting Physical Education Spanish Chemistry Food technology Physics and chemistry Study Skills Commerce French Portuguese Technology Computer and information literacy Geography Practical skills Woodwork Danish German Printing technology Domestic science Greek Project Area

Now that you have finished your letters you and your colleagues, as a class work, can produce Webpages where you make a virtual tour of  your school using photos and / or small video clips. 

Starting at the entrance of the school you can photograph / film several places at school, such as normal classrooms, specific rooms -Chemistry, Art, Music, ICT lessons and so on - the library, the pupils' room, the canteen, outdoor spaces, the playground, the gymnasium, etc. To create the Webpages you need the photos / films taken beforehand to which you add descriptions of the places featured.

All the mention work can also be done in word processor and saved as documents which will be attached to the e-mails.

You can also produce a video about your school (taken by a digital camera and sent via e-mail or by a normal videocamera and sent via snail-mail).

As a conclusion for this work and a challenge to your partners you will create an online multiple choice quiz of about 10 items. The questions asked in the quiz are based on the information provided by you in the virtual tour. This information is also vital for your partners to successfully accomplish their task. 

The "questions" in the quiz, depend on the information you made available on the webpages, but you can , for instance, include features such as:

• the name of a special subject where something very specific is done 

• guessing the correct origin of a small detail taken from one of the pictures  

• the number of pupils in a certain class

• ...